Life on Planet Earth on Search

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Searching for Herself

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:7-9, Luke 15:8-10, Matthew 18:10-14, Luke 15:1-7

A group of tourists spent hours Saturday night looking for a missing woman near Iceland’s Eldgja canyon, only to find her among the search party. The group was travelling through Iceland on a tour bus...

liturgy

Only the hungry search for bread. Only

Author

Ann Siddall

Keywords

Only the hungry search for bread. Only the thirsty look for water. This is a place for those who are hungry and thirsty in spirit. Only those who ache for meaning will pursue it. Only those who ye...

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Author

John Greenleaf Whittier

Keywords

World

We search the world for truth; we cull The good, the pure, the beautiful, From all old flower fields of the soul; And, weary seekers of the best, We come back laden from our quest, To find that all th...

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Our Need for Forgiveness: Our Search for Wholeness

Author

Annemarie S. Kidder

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 3:23, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Hebrews 10:22, Romans 3:23-24, Psalm 32:5, Acts 3:19, Proverbs 28:13

The practice of confession in the context of a liturgy or in a private ecclesiastical setting has declined drastically over the past fifty years, and in particular since the Protestant Reformation in ...

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The Myth of the Search Theory

Author

Jonathan Grant

Keywords

Sex

The notion that sexual chemistry is critical to a long-term relationship has led to the “search theory,” which drives people to explore more sexual relationships in order to increase their chances of ...

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Crisis Intensifies our Search for Wisdom

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:28, Ecclesiastes 7:12, Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 30:21, Proverbs 3:5-6, James 1:5

A life-threatening crisis came to my home when I was only 25. My wife suffered a near-fatal stroke and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors scrambled to keep her alive. Within hours, we were maki...

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The Search for Satisfaction

Author

Ginny Owens

Keywords

In this excerpt, musician and author Ginny Owens shares a childhood exercise that only makes specific what all of us as human beings struggle with, the desire for wholeness: I wish you could know my ...

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How A Search for Meaning Can Lead to A Rushed Existence

Author

Jennifer Dukes Lee

Keywords

We all crave a meaningful life. This is good and holy. But in the quest for meaning, we get mixed up, turned around, and accidentally end up constantly in a hurry. We rush to grow successful businesse...

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St. Anthony and the Search for God Amidst Crisis

Author

Daniel Grothe

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 19:21, Philippians 3:8, Luke 9:23, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Hebrews 12:11, Isaiah 58:6-7

Given life’s unpredictability and the inevitability of pain and hardship, what do we do when that pain and hardship show up on our doorsteps? In roughly AD 270, there was a man in Lower Egypt named An...

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Christopher Parkening’s Search For Happiness and Purpose

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 37:4, Colossians 3:23-24, Matthew 16:26, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, 1 Corinthians 10:31

Considered perhaps the greatest guitarist alive, Christopher Parkening appeared to have it all. Signed to an international recording deal as a teenager, Parkening traveled across the world playing bea...

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Author

Blaise Pascal

Keywords

Rest

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

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Desperation is a Good Thing

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Desperation

As strange as it may sound, desperation is a really good thing in the spiritual life. Desperation causes us to be open to radical solutions, willing to take all manner of risk in order to find what we...

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Earth, Receive an Honored Guest

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:4, John 14:1-4, Job 19:25-27

W.H. Auden is widely considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century. Auden grew up in England but spent some of his adult years in the United States. When he passed away on the 29th of Septe...

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Two Kind of Books on Pain

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:4, Psalm 34:18, Psalm 147:3, 1 Peter 4:12-19, John 16:33, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 1 Peter 5:10, Romans 5:3-5, Romans 8:28

Books on the problem of pain divide neatly into two groupings. The older ones, by people like Aquinas, Bunyan, Donne, Luther, Calvin, and Augustine, ungrudgingly accept pain and suffering as God’s use...

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Sleepwalking in a Dark Wood

Author

Dante Alighieri

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 119:105, 2 Corinthians 4:6, John 1:5, Isaiah 50:10, Psalm 23:4

For many of us, life can easily become disorienting and discouraging. Existential questions often emerge that never have before. As stressful as modern life can be, it is somewhat comforting to know t...

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Author

Prince

Keywords

Money won’t buy you happiness, but it will pay for the search.

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Author

Sarah Dessen

Keywords

"It's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching and rarely discovered-so many locks not enough keys.”

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Seek not Courts

Author

William Billings

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 2:6-7, Philippians 2:6-8, Micah 5:2, John 1:14, 2 Corinthians 8:9

Seek not in courts, nor palaces, Nor royal curtains draw; But search the stable, see your God, Extended on the straw.

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What are you Looking for?

Author

Craig Groeschel

Keywords

You will always find what you are looking for. Think about the difference between two birds: a vulture and a hummingbird. Vultures soar high in the sky, looking and searching. What does a vulture find...

liturgy

Adapted from Ezekiel 34:11-16

Author

Chip Hardwick

Keywords

Scripture

Ezekiel 34:11-16

Leader: For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. People: As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered...

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Author

Jean Sulivan

Keywords

Consumerism

Human beings are not looking for just anything but for the absolute, even when they believe they are turning away from it, or when they unknowingly repress it in a search for material things.

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Where is the Money?

Author

Keywords

Years ago, the story goes, a San Diego bank hired a private investigator to track down a bank robber and retrieve stolen funds. The search led to Mexico. The investigator crossed the border and then, ...

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Author

Paul David Tripp

Keywords

Little kingdom living is an endless search for earthly treasure and unending focus on personal need; Grace calls you to a bigger kingdom.

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Losing the Other Eye

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Nehemiah 4:14

Professional football players often get heated on the field, sometimes letting their emotions get the best of them when penalized by an official. Art Holst, a longtime NFL referee, recalls a Sunday ga...

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A Life Changed by a Stolen Gideon Bible

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Steve May tells the story of “Dee,” who grew up in east Tennessee in an affluent, but unchurched home. Dee’s time at college involved as much wild living as it did studying, and soon her life became a...

liturgy

Holy God, we realize that You know us

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Holy God, we realize that You know us more intimately than we know ourselves. We come before You now asking You to show us our sin, to make us aware of our failings, to open our eyes to our brokenness...

liturgy

Heavenly father, we confess to you that

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Heavenly father, we confess to you that we do not always think or act as the children which you made us to be. You tell us to honour our fathers and mothers, not to murder, commit adultery, steal or c...

liturgy

Lord God Almighty: our Creator,

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Isaiah 41:13, John 14:26-27, Psalm 34:18-19, Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Lord God Almighty: our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer: There is no place where You are absent. There is no corner of our world that’s hidden from You. There is nothing about us You do not know, no ac...

liturgy

I bless you with the knowledge and

Author

Bud Thoreen

Keywords

I bless you with the knowledge and assurance that you cannot earn God’s love. No matter how far you run from Him in your search for freedom and pleasure; No matter how hard you try to earn his blessin...

liturgy

Adapted from Psalm 139:1-6 (ESV)

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 139:1-6

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all ...

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